Many athletes and non-athletes utilize weight lifting or weight training exercises to build strength and/or bulk, to prevent injury, or to improve overall condition and appearance. Typically, weight training exercises are performed with either exercise machines or free weights, i.e., barbells and weighted plates, dumbbells, etc. For various reasons, most exercise programs incorporate both machines and free weights in a variety of different exercise routines in order to maximize the effect of working out a desired number of muscle groups.
Free weights offer a number of advantages over exercise machines. For instance, they are relatively inexpensive in comparison to exercise machines. Free weights are also more versatile because a variety of exercises can be performed with one set of weights, whereas most exercise machines are designed for only one exercise. Even though some exercise machines accommodate more than one exercise, the cost of these machines usually increases proportionately with the number of exercises. Use of dumbbells also enables both arms to be exercised independently. Finally, free weights are popular among many weight lifters because the lifting movements are not restricted to prescribed planes of motion or prescribed angles.
Nevertheless, there are also a number of inherent disadvantages associated with free weights. One such disadvantage relates to safety. Although most weight room instructors strongly advise against an individual working out by himself or herself, this cautionary measure is particularly important when the lifting of free weights is involved. This is due to commonly recognized dangers such as the possibility of dropping a weight on a body part, or becoming trapped beneath a bar, which could easily occur in exercises such as bench press, incline press or squat. Additionally, through carelessness, loading and unloading of heavy weighted plates onto the ends of a bar sometimes results in an unbalanced bar that falls downward from its rack.
Another disadvantage associated with some free weight exercises relates to the body positioning required to perform a prescribed maneuver. The location of the weights with respect to the body may be awkward and/or dangerous. Finally, due to gravity, for some movements designed to exercise a muscle group in a particular way, a weight resistance simply cannot be applied against the muscular movement without a machine. Generally, any exercise which requires some downward pulling movement would come under this latter category. One particular pulling exercise movement is referred to as a high row. This movement exercises a muscle group which includes the latissimus dorsi, the rhomboids, the posterior deltoids and the biceps. Starting with arms extended above and in front of the head, with palms pronated, or facing outwardly, the exerciser pulls downwardly and slightly forwardly to a position in front of the chest against a weight resistance applied throughout the motion. The motion is downward and slightly forward, while the applied resistance against this muscle group during the high row motion is directed upwardly and slightly rearwardly. The elbows move outwardly during the pulling motion.
One exercise maneuver which exercises this muscle group through this motion is a relatively close grip pull up performed with palms facing forward and, in an uppermost position, with the head of the exerciser pulled up and facing the bar. During this motion, the weight resistance of the body applies downward force, but there is also some rearward resistance felt by the exerciser, because the torso moves rearwardly as the body is pulled upwardly. With arms extended, the bar is directly above the head. When the body is pulled up, the bar is in front of the head. This movement also requires some outward movement of the elbows during pulling.
While a pull up performed this way may effectively exercise the above-described muscle group, it has a number of limitations. First, many people simply cannot lift their own weight, and this manner of pull up requires that the exerciser be able to lift at least his or her weight. Second, a pull up cannot be easily performed with one hand. One important aspect of weight training involves the isolation of muscle groups on both sides of an exerciser's body, so that the arms or the legs can be exercised independently, or simultaneously, depending on the circumstances. Particularly during rehabilitation, single limb exercise enables an exerciser to measure and compare the relative strength of an injured limb to the strength of the healthy limb, so that rehabilitation progress can be monitored.
Some exercise machines provide a pulley/cable exercise device which includes a pulley restricted bar held at opposite ends and pulled downwardly. This device is commonly referred to as a lat pulldown. A lat pulldown may be used to perform several different pulldown exercises, including a modified high row. This is done by connecting a narrow hand grip to the bar, grasping the grip with palms forward, leaning back and pulling downwardly from above the head to a position in front of the head, from either a seated or a kneeling position. Unfortunately, this manner of performing a high row exercise suffers from a number of deficiencies.
First, the resistance is directed upwardly, or vertical, with no transverse resistance felt by the exerciser. While an exerciser using this device may lean the torso rearward during the pulldown motion, this compound pulling/leaning movement does not apply any transverse resistance to the desired muscle group. In other words, this particular device does not track the natural position of the muscles through the high row motion previously described. Moreover, this machine can only be operated one arm at a time.
Perhaps due to costs, or due to a mistaken perception that the high row exercise motion is relatively unimportant, applicant is unaware of any exercise machine which exercises the high row muscle group in a sufficient manner.
It is an object of the invention to provide an exercise machine which maximizes the muscular benefit attainable during performance of a high row motion by applying resistance against the natural body motion throughout this movement.
It is another object of this invention to provide a high row exercise machine which is particularly suitable for exercising one arm at a time.
It is another object of the invention to provide a high row exercise machine which combines the advantageous features of both free weight exercise and exercise machines without incorporating the attendant disadvantages normally associated therewith.